American Indian Wars

The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars,[note 1] were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States government and American settlers, against various American Indian tribes. These conflicts occurred in the United States from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the end of the 19th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for Indian tribes' lands. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.

Quick facts: American Indian Wars, Date, Location, Result,... ▼

American Indian Wars
An 1899 chromolithograph of U.S. Cavalrymen pursuing American Indians
Date 1609 – 1890s Location United States with spillover in Alaska, Canada, and Mexico Result Sovereignty of various combatants extended or lost Massive indigenous population decline Deportation and forced assimilation of indigenous tribes Many treaties, truces, and armistices made and broken by combatants Indian reservations established in the United States
Belligerents
Amerindians: American Indians, including the tribes: Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee), Lakota, Miami, Shawnee, Seminole, Wampanoag, and the Northwestern Confederacy Comanche Alaska Natives	Colonists, Viceroyalty and Europeans: British Empire:  Kingdom of England Kingdom of Great Britain British America United Kingdom British North America  Dominion of Canada First French Empire: Kingdom of France New France  Spanish Empire: Kingdom of Spain Council of the Indies Viceroyalty of New Spain Dutch Empire: New Netherland  Russia: Russian America  United States  Mexico  Republic of Texas  Confederate States

As settlers spread westward across the United States after 1780, armed conflicts increased in size, duration, and intensity between settlers and various Indian tribes. The climax came in the War of 1812, when major Indian coalitions in the U.S. Midwest and the U.S. South fought against the United States and lost. Conflict with settlers became less common and was usually resolved by treaties between the federal government and specific tribes, which often required the tribes to sell or surrender land to the United States. These treaties were frequently broken by the U.S. government. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the U.S. government to force Indian tribes to move from east of the Mississippi River to the west on the American frontier, especially to Indian Territory which became Oklahoma. As settlers expanded onto the Great Plains and the Western United States, the nomadic and semi-nomadic Indian tribes of those regions were forced to relocate to reservations.

Indian tribes and coalitions often won battles with the encroaching settlers and soldiers, but their numbers were too few and their resources too limited to win more than temporary victories and concessions from the U.S. and other countries that colonized areas that had composed the modern-day borders of the U.S.